Of Friends, Duals, And Other Scars
by Fighta
Summary: Heartbreak, Passage of Time, and The Love And Passion of those who walk behind Hermione. And She, who must stay still in time to move foward.
1. Default Chapter

All characters and creation are not my property but that of J.K Rowling. Please know this so you don't sue me just because I'm a pervert with a bad sense of character development. I have no money anyway.  
  
The "Friend" (Hermione's Story)  
  
By: Fighta Malcolm Cross of the Haz Mat Team (cuz you are what you drink)                                                        
  
Rated PG-13 for nudity  
  
   
  
7:30 am, December 9, Sunday:  
  
 No classes.  
  
    She stared into the bathroom mirror and studied the many individual hairs that fell and curled from her head. Still busy, still brown. She opened her mouth and examined her teeth to make sure that, yes, she did have straight teeth, even after three years.  
  
No one there really notice her and her three old straight teeth and her bushy hair except herself and the idiot Slytherine that unknowingly gave her straight teeth. And he just noticed her hair just for the purpose of annoying her. There was another that notice though but those days were long gone. The only man who ever noticed was probably sailing on a broomstick at the moment looking for victory.  
  
    She looked down on her body, fresh and clean straight from the Prefects bath. A short five foot four. Strong arms from dragging books from one place to another and nice but average figure that was always hidden under the billow of black shapeless robes. But she was exposed now and saw the steam rise off her skin and look and the raise of her breasts.  
  
    They were small. Barely a B-cup.  
  
    She stood on her toes sucked in her stomach and stuck out her chest and look at her profile in the mirror. Her face blushed from lack off air and she gave up. She muttered to herself about being vain and called on her clothes.  
  
    "Accio Robes."  
  
    She dressed and left the bath to the Great Hall.  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
8:45 am  
  
    As she approached the Great Hall she heard laughter. But it was cruel. Mean and high: Lynch Mob Laughter.  
  
"Pertrificus Totalus!" boomed a male voice from the hall.  
  
Her steps moved faster in curiosity and agitation she really knew it she was at full sprint. She busted into the hall along with an agitated Professor McGonagall. What she saw made her heart plummet and fill with anger and pity.  
  
Ron collapsed on the floor and frozen while Harry screamed out counter curses at Malfoy. With that damning, jeering, laughter of the Slytherin and the combine yelling of the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff houses the words of the spells downed away.  
  
"STOP THIS INSTANT! STOP RIGHT NOW BEFORE TAKE 50 POINTS FROM ALL HOUSES! YES, INCLUDING GRYFFINDOR MR. CREEVEY!" McGonagall shouted at the crowed as they parted like the Red Sea.  
  
The spells already left Harry and Draco's wands and one drop after the other. Harry twisted and dragged himself away desperately grabbing his wand and crawling away while Malfoy just slumped down on the floor, vomiting frogs.  
  
The Head boys and Girls from the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs grabbed Harry and Ron and help them away. Malfoy was hacking and coughing his almost retarded sidekicks lifted and dragged him from the raving mob.  
  
    "Hermione...", Harry groaned desperately  
  
    "Harry." she started to say but then changed her mind. She regained her professional tone of voice to him, then at Ron. "Lets' get you two to Madame Pomfrey. She'll fix you right up."   
  
    This wasn't the first time it has happen but already seven years of lectures and nothing sinking in made sure that Ron, Harry, and Malfoy, weren't going to stop.  
  
    As The Prefects and Head boys helped them, the Owl Post flew in and in that flutter if brown feathers she spotted a snowy white one: Hedwig, Harry's owl with a light blue letter in her mouth.  
  
The three were all carted away with levitation spells and the crowd was too busy with the posts to care much as she held out her arm for Hedwig to land on and drop the letter. She gave Hedwig a piece of toast and few strokes before she flew away to the Owlery.  
  
    She looked and saw that the letter was from Cho. She was now Harry's girlfriend. They started going out late into his 5th year. She was a nice girl with beautiful hair and an intelligent mind that almost, ALMOST challenged Hermione's. They went out at first, Cho confessed, out of knowing that Harry was the last person to see Cedric alive. As timed went on she started to see Harry's silent but good nature and then she fell in love with him.  
  
That was two years ago and Cho wasn't the only one who fell for him. Seven years of watching Harry grow up into a man at his best and his worst did something to her. The sadness that filled his eyes as time went on with the realization that the world thought he was great or a treat. Never just a child, and forever something beyond his one, short mortal coil. Being with him and feeling all the highs and lows of since they met and created a bond of friendship and trust. She would lay her life down for him, just as he would do for her and they almost had a many number of times.  
  
    She felt the pangs of sadness and loneliness from her own secrets and missed that feeling of the letter flying from above and seeing the careful effort to make it as nice as possible. The imagination coming forth as she heard a deep voice telling her presences was missed.  
  
She placed the letter in her cloak pocket and walk to the hospital wing of Hogwarts. She had a letter to deliver.  
  
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3:45 p.m  
  
    The curses turned out to be Lock-legs for Harry and a total Body-Bind for Ron. Malfoy received Frog's Breath and was already being babied by Slytherine girls in his House.  
  
She looked at them Ron and Harry lying next to each other and rolled her eyes. They looked board and expected the lecture they got so many times before about fighting. They already received punishment from Professor McGonagall ("20 POINTS FROM GRINFINDOR AND YOU BOTH HAVE TO CLEAN THE RESTROOMS WITHOUT MAGIC!!!") And were ready for another round. She didn't feel like it though. Too much time has past for this. She wasn't a parent she was...a friend. All these years and she was still just a friend.  
  
    "A Letter from Cho came in today. I thought you might want it right now."  
  
Harry just smile and took the letter and placed on his differently shaped glasses and read the letter in silence. The facial expression told her that it was obviously not a "Dear John" letter as a familiar stupid smile formed.  
  
    "She's in France right now and going over some books about the origins of the a new breed of dragon. I managed to convince her to study them and not actually go near them." He had this strange look of nervousness, as he thought about the Hungarian Horntail he battled with in his fourth year. Hermione focus her attention on Ron who was struggling to get up.  
  
    "You look like a newborn calf," she smiled.  
  
    "Aren't you going to help me?" Ron looked at her with a child's look of annoyance.  
  
    "Aren't you going to tell me why you got in another fight?"  
  
    Ron looked at her and raised his eyebrows and looked even more awkward then before. He slipped and fell on the floor with a heavy thud and muttered curses. He looked very pathetic. His long, lanky, legs and arms shifted slowly as he grabbed the bed and pulled up.  
  
    "Damn it! Help me woman!" he scolded.  
  
She walked toward him and helped him up while Harry looked on with a small, almost well hidden grin. He decided not to risk being embarrassed by his lack of balance and decided to wait a little longer to stand. He noticed a small flash of a smile from Ron while being helped up and that his arm went quietly around her waist before standing up completely straight. They look completely different from one another. Ron stood tall and awkward with his billions of freckles and red hair as a child and it was no different now. He stood a six foot 3. He could rest his chin on the top Hermione's' head. But there, holding on to her, he looked more like a child with his ego hurt more then his body just before he let go.  
  
    "Why are my friends so stupid?"  
  
    "If you were so smart you would have noticed that in the beginning," Ron replied rather smugly.  
  
    Hermione rolled her eyes and look at Harry who replied:  
  
    "He got you there."  
  
She just smiled and shook her head.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------  
  
5:00 p.m  
  
    Ron began to march around as he got his ability to walk back and Harry already was moving more without wobbling when Hermione asked again:  
  
    "Aren't you going to tell me why you got in another fight?"  
  
    "Urm...It's not really important...." Ron ears turn red. He was lying.  
  
    "I'm not in the mood for all this okay? Why? Harry? Why??"  
  
    Before Harry even opened his mouth, Ron answered. "Malfoy...he said...he was going to kill your whole family in front of you just to see the look on your face." He didn't mutter, or stand strangely, but he looked away. "He said that watching you scream would be better then fucking the devils own whores and that he'd make you one, if anyone even wanted to fuck a mud-blood...Then I just went after him and Crabbe nailed me from the left with Body-Bind."  
  
    Her face went trough a swift change of anger, annoyance, and then a strange smile. " You two are going to get killed over me. I'll deal with Malfoy. He's the devils' whore going around from girl to girl, banging all those 3d and 4th years in the Slytherine House."  
  
    "But...."  
  
    "But nothing. He's a jackass and what he says about me is my business and right now I got too many things to worry about Draco. Plus, I'm really mad that you guys dragged me from my studies so I can watch you all stiff and sad looking. The finals are really close"  
  
    "Finals aren't until April!" Ron objected. "What kind of psycho studies months in ad---oh yeah -you- would. How could I forget."  
  
    "Maybe all that red hair rotting your brain and is killing the memory center. I mean it's already gone after your I.Q."  
  
    "Hey!-"  
  
    "Your right," Harry said in already common responded to Hermione "Um.not about the hair Ron.I mean we should know better then to mess with him but it's a little late for that. I have a letter to write Cho anyway. Lets go back to the Common room."  
  
Both men with full walking abilities and the woman beside them both went to the Gryffindor House.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------  
  
 6:45 p.m  
  
    Harry wrote a letter on his usual spot in the common room while Hermione read her book and Ron played carefully with his old chess set. No one spoke much. There were times when silence was the most comfortable thing between all of them after years of talking and trust silenced was enjoyed because the mere presence of each others company was comfort enough. That's what everyone all thought, but for years Hermione felt a little detached from this comfort.  
  
    She secretly watched Harry right about what happen in the past few days, making his writing especially neat and beautiful, biting his bottom lip in concentration as he carefully formed the "L" in the phrase "My Love..."And as she watched his delicate movements with his quill, she took in his looks. He was so gentle at times; it was almost feminine.   
  
And an old yearning flushed and shifted inside her.  The "I miss you's " and "My darling's". The kindness pouring out and the warmth kept inside, so gentle and sweet.  She longed for it. She wanted to drink in words of love and kindness. But even that was not enough. She didn't want just any letter but that letter. Harry's and as she watch she felt that loneliness of the knowledge of the days that turned to months then years, that she was not his.  
  
  Thoughts that swelled in her made her so sad she slumped in her chair and stared into the fire and cried so quietly that she could blame the smoke for her tears if anyone cared enough to wonder why she had tears in her eye in the beginning. Never mind the fact that everyone knew the fires have no smoke. She was alone and lonely. Cho had Harry after she lost Cedric and Hermione knew that Hermione had no one in the end.  
  
She was just the friend. After all this time, she was just the friend.  
  
She stood and quietly left leaving behind her only the soft scratching of Harry quill, the movement of Ron's' black knight making checkmate and the deep crackle of the warm fire. That, and Ron noticing a sparkle slide down her pale left, cheek.  
  
"Checkmate." 


	2. The Duel (Ron's Story)

You guys know the drill, Harry Potter and Co. not mine. Topaz is an actual perfume as well. I wear it when I actually remember to wear perfume. Don't sue, yatta, yatta, yatta.  
  
.  
  
The Duel (Ron's Story)  
  
By: Fighta Malcolm Cross  
  
Rated:PG-13 For Lang.  
  
7:15 p.m Sunday  
  
"Checkmate."  
  
Ron only understood two things about the female race:  
  
Smell Nice. Soft.  
  
Thanks to his father's sperm, Ron only had one sister out of the six children his parent's conceived and he refused to look at her as anything but a sister, thank you very much.  
  
But, as he saw her leave with the soft flutter of the black, shapeless robes disappear away behind the picture of the Fat Lady, he new something was wrong. He saw that often as they grew up at Hogwarts together. Her anger and frustration at world for not being able to or just flat out refusing to understand her loves and obsessions. She often met a prejudice that no one really understood, just tried to accept. She met it until she just couldn't stand it and left. It was almost a monologue in some old forgotten play she was used to playing. But this feeling of quite abandonment of him and his friend Harry. this. this was new.  
  
"What's wrong with her?" Ron finally said out loud.  
  
"Who? Hermione?"  
  
"Yeah, she's been distant lately."  
  
Harry smiled an old, modest smile that told he knew more then the rest in his company. Something he developed from Dumbledore in his study at Hogwarts.  
  
"I thought you liked it when she was gone, Ron. Change of heart?"  
  
"Shut up. You know it as well as me ever since last year she's been distant from us. At first I thought it was because of Krum but now. I'm not so sure. I'm going to talk to her. Give me the map so I can find her. Last thing I need is running around like a git looking for her."  
  
"Here," Harry said pulling out the old parchment from his cloak pocket. "Want me to go with you?"  
  
"No. she might think we're ganging up on her," he replied with a look down the hall reaching  
  
He stood up a little more stiffly, with no one to bend over slightly to reach, he looked impressive and confident, He smooth out his robes before he nodded good-bye to Harry and while walking away, took out his wand, tapped the parchment and said:  
  
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."  
  
7:25 P.M  
  
The now familiar map appeared before him and the dot that represented Hermione moving slowing out in the garden next to the lake.  
  
He walked off hiding the parchment and going down the many corridors and staircases of the Hogwarts. Every now and then a Professor would stop him and asked where he was going and he would say that he had to go speak to the Head Girl of the Griffindor house because he was having a little argument over the rules of the Common room and they needed her to settle them. It seemed to satisfy them enough until he ran across Professor Snape.  
  
"I somehow doubt that Mr. Weasley, that you would be interested to know what are the rule considering all you do is break them. You were always a troublemaker since you first year, always. Same as your brothers, I'm surprised Ginny hasn't taken after you. You're already in detention for dueling tomorrow, don't think I wouldn't add more."  
  
"Sir, I'm trying to change my ways.honestly."  
  
God Ron, he thought to himself, how full of crap are you? .  
  
Snape's eyes narrowed. "It wouldn't be intelligent of you to humor me, Weasley. I don't take well to people lying to me. If I catch you breaking any more rules you're expelled. Don't doubt that for a minute."  
  
7:45 P.M  
  
Ron said his "yes sirs" enough to satisfy Snape ego and left quickly but quietly. Trying to look like a guy who was sure where he was and why as he finally reach the doors that let to a garden of magical plants that smelled exactly what you wanted them to smell like. Ron walked by smelled a sent that made him feel embarrassed and happy at the same time, female. It smelled like a female. More specifically a perfume called Topaz that Hermione bought in London, which reminded Ron of wildflowers. Because that who he was looking for tonight. It Usually the sent was an exotic French perfume that Fleur Delacour often worn to torment the males with lust long after she was gone. So far it work, Ron hadn't seen her since she went to Italy with her boyfriend seven months ago.  
  
The sunlight graced the hills as it was already bowing down from this part of its stage. He pulled out the map once more and saw Hermione was moving fast toward his direction and three other dots chasing after her.  
  
Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy.  
  
He quickly tapped the mapped and whispered "Mischief managed" before sprinting off.  
  
"Hermione! Hermione!?!" He yelled out toward the direction.  
  
Other then the rustle of the wind in the bushes, silence.  
  
"Herimone! Damn it! Where the hell are you!" He yelled panicky out into the air. His lungs breathed gas fumes, his heart was pumping battery acid, the icy December winds punctured his bare skin, his throat was a fucking desert, and every part of his entire body was tearing apart as he blasted through the garden screaming out her name but he didn't really notice. He mind was focused at the burning thought that Hermione was out numbered and alone.  
  
"...JUST TO WATCH HER SCREAM, WEASLEY, JUST TO FUCKING WATCH THAT MUD-BLOOD SCREAM." Malfoy voice drifted across his mind with that damned grin on his pale face.  
  
He finally left the cover of the garden and into the plains and saw the object of his search. Hermione, in a stance that declared war on the blond, Slytherin bastard staring directly at him in a deviance she develop over the years. Her wand out stretched holding on to her wand and her pride.  
  
"Back off Malfoy!" she yelled from her stance. "There's no way in hell Dumbledore will let you stay here if you're caught trying to pick a duel with me! Not only that but face it, I can kick you ass at this! We're not kids anymore!"  
  
"Hermione!" screamed Ron. "Are you okay?" he breathed steam from his burning lungs.  
  
"Of course, what am I? A rookie?"  
  
"Well."  
  
"Shut up! This is between me and the bitch, Weasley!"  
  
"I really don't give a damn Draco! She's right, we're not children. There's no one here to impress except your lackeys and God knows that they'll impressed by the fact you can breathe. Another time!"  
  
"Fuck you! This ends now"  
  
"Your right, Malfoy," Hermione said in a cold calculated voice. "This ends now."  
  
She closed her eyes and pointed her wand toward the lake while the energy inside her and the wand seem to increase in strength. A hidden power seem to build inside of her that seem to affect the air around her as the wind grew stronger  
  
" ~AQUA. DRACO.LEVIATAN~!!!"  
  
The water of the lake swelled and twisted as a form came forth from the surface.no it was the surface. The water took shape, depth, and fury of a dragon's head and long neck. More started to come out. It didn't scream or roar, it didn't have to, the sheer magnitude of the ability of Hermione's power was impressive enough to make a demon of water with no way of killing it. There was no such destruction of a beast with no real heart or mind. Just a puppet, the deadliest puppet they have ever ran across in their short, and now seemingly pathetic lives.  
  
"Don't make me kill you Malfoy." Hermione said in a distant voice. "Leave right now, never mention this, and you shall live."  
  
Ron stood with his knees buckling underneath him, absolutely impressed and terrified of the beast. "Oh my God." he muttered stupidly to himself.  
  
Malfoy and his morons didn't need anymore warning then that. They sprinted for their lives into the castle, leaving all pride and impressions of being bad-asses behind.  
  
As soon as they entered Hermione's dragon broke apart and splashed down creating strong waves among the water. She looked at the water as it slowly started to make only ripples in the surface then calmed, as if it never even existed in the first place. Slowly, she turned to Ron and smiled an exhausted smile.  
  
"Heh.fooled them." She managed to whisper just before she dropped her wand and collapsed.  
  
8:07 P.M  
  
Ron watched her fall for a split second before catching her. She was the one that seemed like a child now. He gently placed her down on the grass so she could rest. Taking her wand, he snapped back from it, the heat was almost enough to burn into his hand. He waited a moment then reached out for it again and the wand seemed to cool and placed it in his pocket.  
  
He looked around and spotted Hagrid's cabin and frown. Hagrid was away tonight going over some paper work to bring god knows what back for Care of Magical Creatures class.  
  
Ron looked back over Hermione for a moment. She was so different from the way she was along time ago. She hardly spoke and watched the world go by. The only thing that didn't change was her passion for learning. But now she never pressed it upon him or Harry. She been acting so solemn and tired ever since November two years ago.about the same time as.Harry and Cho started going out...  
  
"Oh Jesus, Hermione, that's why? GODDAMIT! YOU COULDN'T EVEN HAVE TOLD ME!?!.. I thought I was your best friend. you couldn't even have told me?"  
  
She stirred but did not wake.  
  
He felt so empty watching her. Lying there so helpless and frail, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her.  
  
"No wonder you've changed. Mum told me once that a heart could die if it's not aloud to love someone. Is that what's happening to you?"  
  
He picked her up tenderly in his arms and carried her slowly back to the castle.  
  
"Don't let your heart die, Hermione. Please don't. I don't think you ever noticed but I love you." He whispered to her, his faced red with sadness and anger.  
  
He looked at her and leaned to place his lips on her forehead, realizing that maybe that was the only time he could kiss her with out objection.  
  
".harry." she whispered in her slumber.  
  
The sky was already a replaced the reds and oranges of dusk with the indigo night and the shimmer of the Milky Way. The mellow wind started to carry the gardens sent toward him.  
  
It was the sweet, potent sent of Topaz perfume. 


	3. The Other Scar And Smile

Notes: Thanks for the help and suggestions to this story, and teaching me how to upload it. Without it I would have never been able to shove one more story into an already over crowed section of the Internet. Thanks also to J.K Rowling for not suing my broke ass. To those (GOD KNOWS TO THOSE) who are willing to stick around and read some more. And to love, just because it moves me through every event in life, well and bad. May love never abandon me.  
  
Dedicated to those who have fallen in N.Y and D.C who have loved and are lost. And to those who still look for them for not giving up.  
  
Title: The Other Scar and The Smile (The Friends Story)  
  
By: Fighta Cross of the Haz-Mat team (cuz you are what you drink)  
  
Rated: NC-17 for sexual content  
  
  Time always seemed to shift and bend with the human heart beat. The balance will always conformed to what was pulling at the heartstrings in the beginning. The soft brush on the cheek from someone you're in love with, slowing down time to almost an excruciating stand still, while speeding up heartbeats. The anticipation longing of what it is you dread or desired completely formatted the mind and heart.  
  
The moments were so slow and secure as Ron carried Hermione with absolute sensitivity to her occasional stirrings. It couldn't have been more then five minutes. But there, carrying her with such a fear of breaking her, time seemed to stand still. The only thing disrupting the peace was the mild breeze of Topaz perfume from the garden growing more softly until the only perfume was from the girl herself.  
  
Ron moved forward and finally reached the castle and kick the door with caution so not to damage it and moved inside and accidentally banged his head on the wall walking in. Let is be said that Ron has the grace of a gimp, newborn calf.  
  
He placed Hermione on the floor and kneeled next to her to rest .He debated with himself on whether he should go call on Madame Pomfrey and leave her unguarded or try to wake her him self when he realized that he had a piece of chocolate still in his pocket. He fished it out and placed a piece of it in her mouth. Her lips were soft moved so slowly around his fingers that he felt embarrassed to have done so.  
  
Hermione worked her mouth unconsciously eating the chocolate when she woke quietly. She looked sleepy and stupid looking about not knowing where she was when she spotted Ron and blinked.  
  
"Ron? Where am I and what am I eating?" she asked flicking her tongue to reveal a tiny gray ball of lint. "Ugh."  
  
"Um." Ron blushed feverishly as he tried to explain. "You fainted out in the grounds and I carried you back here. I gave you some chocolate to help you out. I should go get Madame Pomfrey, I'll be right back."  
  
"Ron, wait, no. It's o.k. I just exhausted myself with that spell. Just help me up. I'm still kind of groggy."  
  
He stared at her uncertain for a moment and she gave him a tired, confident look. He helped her up against he better judgment. "What the hell was that back at the lake? I thought you were going to kill us all."  
  
"Oh that," Hermione grinned. "That's a spell that can give water form and movement. The more complex the shape the move difficult the spell. Creating a dragon is no easy task. For a moment I thought I was going to collapse before they left. Stupid gits fell for it though. I hope I never have to do that again. Wait, you carried me from there? Why didn't you get help?"  
  
Now he felt stupid, why didn't get help? Realizing his stupidity he made up an excuse: "Um...Well I didn't want to leave you out by yourself.and.uh. if I got help you could've gotten.expelled from Hogwarts for using magic on to hurt someone. You know Snape. He would have blamed you for the dual."  
  
"My, you thought of everything, haven't you Ron? Guess you're not such a prat after all. I think I'll keep you around a little longer."  
  
".*What?!? That's the thanks I get?!? I played Superman for you and that's- DON'T LAUGH! Oh fuck you woman.*"Ron said irritated.  
  
She slowly stopped laughing and was about to replay when she swayed a little and closed her eyes out of fatigue. She leaned toward Ron and rested her head against his chest. She muttered incoherently a little and stood up on her own again.  
  
"Ohhh.my head. Help me to the Head Girl's Bathroom. I have some potion to help me regain my strength in the locker there. I'm just tired."  
  
Ron put her arm around his shoulder and helped her walk down the hall and up the stairs. They were slow and awkward in there movement because of the difference in height. Occasionally Hermione would sway and almost fall. It was strange how quite the halls were as they moved along. It was Christmas break and the school was filled with decoration. The castle was less crowded on these days because of the visiting home. Draco usually went, but his father had to attend some business in Germany. When Ron heard about this his only replay was "Not only is he a Death Eater, he's a freaking Nazi too?"  
  
Hermione did not appreciate the joke because her grandmother was from Germany but she said nothing.  
  
The only time they were stopped was when Professor Flitwick spotted them holding and beamed up at them both.  
  
"We always knew it would happen one day. You two were always fighting and teasing, it's the sign of young love." as he scuttled past Ron's knee and down the hall.  
  
Ron's ears turned red.  
  
They finally reached the Griffindor Head girl's bath as Hermione kept on fading in and out of sleep. They stood in front of the statue. She whispered something barely audible but nothing happen and she tried once more.  
  
".Baby soft." she uttered, closing her eyes.  
  
Ron picked her up as she lulled away into sleep once more. The door slide open and he walked in. The bathroom was huge, almost as big as his house. He looked at the gleaming marble walls and floor that glowed softly. The whole room had a look and feel of hundred of glowing candles coming from the walls. It didn't register until a few seconds that the walls held actual fairies insides, fluttering and dancing about. The sent of Topaz perfume us a bit stronger here then in the garden. Only then he realized the musky undertones and new layers of the sent. He felt calm and drunk on the lights and sent. The whole feel was soft and sensuous. He took in the sight more as he moved his eyes over the swimming pool size tub in the middle with the hundreds of different colored faucets with bejeweled handles. It even had a diving board. A few feet away, some fountains, a dresser, sink, a glorious view of the lake, and next to the wall sized window, a big, comfy looking couch. So THIS was one of the perks of being a Head Boy and Girl.  
  
He carried her over to the couch and placed her there. His arm brushed against the couch. It was an unbelievable softness to it. It was softer then velvet, and stronger then silk.  
  
"Herm.hey. Hermione. wake up.we're here." He gently shook her until she awakened.  
  
"The dresser...third drawer on the right." She looked pasty and Ron was glad to get that potion now.  
  
He went directly to the third drawer and fished out a blue potion bottled with the bright orange letterings of:  
  
* "Eloise's Energy Extract- Feeling tired? Need an extra kick in the pants in the morning? Got to study for that extra hard examine and still be awake the next morning? Take a snippy and be zippy!"*  
  
He eyed the potion for a moment. He wasn't exactly happy that Hermione traded rest for studying but surveying the area he could understand a bit more why. He fed her the potion and she lay there for a moment before she sprung her eyes wide open and started talked rapidly.  
  
"HEY!!! Thanksron.ireally,really,neededthat.thoseguyscanbetotaljerks.thanksfornotsen dingmetomadampomfrey.itwouldhaveworriedharrysoimeannotthatharrydoesnthavebet terthingsto."  
  
She stopped dead in her path of her rapid talking and blinked.  
  
"Sorry.it's a side effect of the potion. It happens for a few seconds then I get to be my normal self."  
  
Ron just started for a moment. He had so many questions. There rarely was a time that he and Hermione were alone. Would it matter even if they we're? No. her quite was something that took over everything for such a long time. She smiled, but it was seldom and even now, though she was grateful, she did not.  
  
He didn't know where to start but, he thought, in the beginning.  
  
"Hermione.You've changed.so.different." His words we're trapped in his thought unable to tell whether he wanted them out or in. He paced toward the window and saw a gorgeous view of the castle, trying to string he many thoughts in order.  
  
Hermione only looked on with seemingly doe eyes. He looked at her and her doe eyes carefully studying him. He knew with utmost clarity that she had no clue what he was talking about.  
  
She shifted her legs off the couch and patted the spot next to her. And a simple sad smile spread out vaguely on her lips. Time seemed so slow and it took forever to for it to form but there it was. A sad smile.  
  
He looked at her and her sad smile, her damn doe eyes, and her heart. She loved him, she just loved Harry more.  
  
"Jesus, Hermione. Aren't you tired?" he asked impatiently, carefully as he sat next to her.  
  
"Ron, you ditz, I just took some..."  
  
"No! I mean, of waiting, the way you look at me with those eyes. It's like your own personal scar. You hardly ever smile, your quite now, Hermione.Jesus.I might as well just ask. Are.are you.in love with Harry?"  
  
She sat silent in humiliation and fear slipping away, lost in her own memories: of growing up, of Harry, Ron, Viktor, Hogwarts, realizing she was a witch for the first time. How could she tell him? Yes, I am in love with Harry. Yes, it tears me up inside that he doesn't want me, that he wanted Cho and he got her. Yes, yes, yes.. I am tired.yes, god, yes.  
  
But she sat and look forward not making eye contact with this man she grew up with. Not making a sound and only listening to the gentle sounds of water flowing in the fountains. And a single tear fell quietly down her cheek out of Ron's view, then another, and another.  
  
And soon she leaned toward Ron, letting her tears falls and hoarsely whispering, "...Yes.  
  
Ron looked her watching her face contort with desperation and sadness that she been hiding for years. His heart dropped but he listened to her.  
  
"Yes, oh god yes, I do. I'm tired. Ron I didn't want to say anything but I am. He doesn't love me, he never will. I'm not good enough. I never was and I never will be. He loves Cho, he always has and me. I'm just the friend."  
  
So there it was: behind the bushy hair and sharp mind there was a woman, morning lost loves and opportunities that never came up, and feelings she never wanted but had to deal with. All of it flooding out.  
  
"No one loves me." she whispered against his chest.  
  
Ron's heart raced as her quickly walked to her and held her tightly and nuzzled her hair with his nose, hiding his own tears. He listened to her rapid whispered stopped her from saying more.  
  
"No.Hermione, your wrong. someone loves you, people would have to be insane not to love you. Listen to what your saying. and listen to what I have to say.  
  
Hermione, you drive up the wall, you taunt me, you're always nagging me to study and stop looking at girls, and god forbid the day you ever thanked my for making a jackass out of myself because I defended you.Jesus if I thought, even for a second, I didn't love you I wouldn't have bothered so long ago."  
  
Silence filled the air with that final sentence. It hung like dead men for seconds, minutes, eons. Ron's heart was thumping in his chest so fast he thought time did slow down because no way a heart could beat this fast. It was Hermione who broke the silence.  
  
"You.you love me?" she said moving from his chest and looking at his eyes. "You love me?" She repeated.  
  
Ron nodded slowly. Trickles of fear dripped down his spine. He never wanted to say anything. It was just a stupid crush that got out of hand, he always told himself. A stupid, stupid crush that lasted 6 YEARS that's all.REALLY. But he always knew he was in love. He was desperately looking for a way out, for a moment where he could save himself from rejection.  
  
"No you don't," she looked away. "You're only saying that to make me feel better. You don't love me."  
  
This was unexpected, in Ron's mind she was twisted with being so completely revolted. But.THIS?  
  
"No, no, Hermione, look." He moved his left sleeve up and pointed to a long, thin, scar moving horizontally across his forearm. "See this? I got this in our 5th year; remember? Draco was going to slap you and I stepped in to stop. We got in a fight and I got cut when a curse nearly missed me but it burned my arm a bit. I love this scar. I think about you every time I see it. Hermione it always been me whose loved you. Harry does love you but I'm.in love with you."  
  
What must be done be done, what must be said be said. Consequences be damned, he thought.  
  
She was lost in remembrance once more. Of her first year and how he over heard him complaining and how he sacrificed himself in that chess game to help her and Harry. Of her second when Draco called her a mud blood and Ron attack with his own broken wand and ended up vomiting slugs for days. How much it hurt her when Ron was mad at her when Scabbers was thought to be killed by her cat, then he forgave her and how he told her and Harry to save themselves. That he pretended to be interested in arithmacy when Viktor told her he might not see her for 3 years, just so she wouldn't be alone.  
  
The arguments, the teasing the misunderstandings the frustrations, the dangers, the highs and lows. He was there. Always. He would've let himself be killed then watch her get hurt. He was the one in the garden running toward her, Ron, not Harry.  
  
Harry was in love with Cho, was writing a letter to her and probably was sending it to her while she sat there. But Ron, he was the one who was there in the garden and carried her up flights up stairs at her request. Always there, the ditz, the idiot that did what had to be done to soften the emotional blows against her.  
  
She looked at him in awe. How could she been so stupid? He was there he loved her and she loved him as well. She just never noticed because Harry, though unwittingly, took the attention from Ron.  
  
He squirmed a little uncertain of her thoughts.  
  
"Ron. I love you too." She smiled, the first real smile in what seemed forever.  
  
She leaned forward to him and kissed him on the cheek just on the corner of his mouth and then, almost instinctively, she pressed her lips against his. As just a subtly as it had started, it gained momentum.  
  
So soft, so soft, he thought. How did I get here? I'm dreaming. I know it.  
  
His arms moved around her, pulling her closer and leaning back until she was on top of him. Their moments we're slow and awkward, feeling each other for the first time. He was moving slowly, grasping on to each memory of holding her.  
  
Her fingers moved across his scar and up his arm to his head and played with his red hair that was longer then usual. She gently stroked the back of his neck with her right hand and held on to him with her left. She finally broke off the kiss and nuzzled him as he began to kiss and suckle on her neck. She moved her right and began to unbutton his cloak and shirt. He mimicked her moments kissing all the spots where the buttons laid against her skin.  
  
She stood above him on the couch as she tauntingly took off her robes.Ron looked on in wonderment. She stripped down slowly as he pulled off his shirt and pants. She taunted him a bit by removing her bra slowly and let it fall on top of his chest  
  
Ron touch her soft skin grabbed on to her hips and pulled down cotton white panties, revealing a shaven pussy. She stepped out of them and stood before him. He could've come just looking at her. It took every bit of his alert mind not to.  
  
His slide his hand up her inner thigh slowly, up and down until she spread her legs a bit more.  
  
"Don't tease." She muttered.  
  
She lifted her left leg and hugged Ron's shoulder with it, pulling his face closer to her. Ron ears turned red.  
  
He moved in and kissed her clit and she trembled. He lapped his tongue out and played with it as she grabbed his hair and shoulder to keep her stable. His figure moved over her pussy searching and finally he pushed one figure inside of her, then two while sucking on her clit. God, she tasted good.  
  
She pushed against his face and hand as she rocked slowly back and forth, contracting her muscles around his fingers moaning.  
  
"Oh god.Ron."she called out.  
  
Come dripped on his hand and down to his scar.  
  
He slowly laid flat on the big couch as she moved up on top of him. The light of the dancing fairies danced randomly across her entire body making her look holy when light reflected in her eyes. He couldn't believe how lucky he was, and how beautiful she was. He just wanted to look at her with that face of yearning and that true smile. That beautiful smile.  
  
She lowered her self on him while she took his dick and guided it inside her as she slide down tormenting slowly. She flexed her muscles as she went up and let them go as she went down. She looked down on him and noticed all the freckles on his skin that made him look almost tanned, the sweat barely starting to form on the crown of his read hair, at his big blue eyes. She meant what she said, she really did love him. She bent over to kiss him, still moving.  
  
He rolled her over and moved back and forth, kissing the space between her breasts as she wrapped her legs over his shoulders and behind his neck. They moved slowly watching each other shiver and moan.  
  
They kept moving together, never really speaking, just exploring each other from the couch to the floor.  
  
Ron laid on the warm rug by the couch as she moved over him into a 69 position. She took his dick and sucked on it occasionally having to pause when Ron suck on her clit in the exact way she loved it. She reached her peak only moments before Ron as he came into her mouth.  
  
She moved to the couch and help him slowly there as well.  
  
"Hermione. please don't let this be a dream. Please, oh god please don't let this be a dream."  
  
"It's not, Ron. Dreams aren't so kind. I really do love you. You been there all this time, always. I'm sorry I never noticed it before, but I really do love you." She began to cry a little over all the lost time.  
  
"Shhh.. It's okay. I love you too. I should have said something sooner." He held her and stroked her hair.  
  
Hermione slipped into a gentle slumber  
  
Hermione and Ron didn't know how long they went on and they didn't care. They held on to each other and had the hurry of a fat cat lying in the windowsill on a spring afternoon. Time for them, had stopped. Nothing mattered in the world except for each other. Ron studied her smile and Hermione looked upon his scar as they laid with their legs intertwined under the covers of their robes and cloaks.  
  
The sent of Topaz perfume and sex mingled in the air and created a new inviting sent that make them sleepy and warm. The light of the fairies within the walls died down as most went to sleep till all the light that was left came from the window that held the view of the moon lit lake and the gentle lights of the other side of the castle. There on that moon lit couch they held on to each other and slept. Now, not just the friends, the lovers as well.  
  
Hope you like it. It took a lot longer then I thought. For a while I thought I wrote myself into some dead ends. I wrote in a little preview of Ch. 4 because everyone kept asking for Harry chapter. Well It is his book so what's a chapter.  
  
Preview of Ch 4. Beyond The Years (Harry's Story)  
  
"Everyone always told him he had his mother's eyes. And it was evident as he saw them in the photo album of his parents. Harry started a scrap book in addition to the photo album filled with pictures of Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Cho, Dumbledore and many others. He always knew what was to come, because he saw it long before, with his and his mothers eyes. Far beyond the years." 


End file.
